Heartbeat
by jailhouserock
Summary: Arthur is a moody guy who works as an assistant for a publishing company to get through university. Alfred is a local photographer going to community college on a scholarship. What happens when these two meet?
1. Introduction

Meet Arthur

Arthur never had a good morning. He hated mornings and he hated having to wake up at 6am everyday. ' _Absolutely ridiculous_ ' He always thought when his schedule became a topic, but when you're trying to get through your last two years of university without the help of your parents you basically take any good job you can find that will take you. So Arthur awoke every morning to head to his job at a publishing company as an assisstant. He was paid well though, he was thankful for that.

Arthur woke up with the sun coming through the curtains in his room with caused his to groan and squint his eyes. Sometimes he wished he had taken the apartment that was blocked by a building that he previously disliked because he wanted a view of the city. After the small thought Arthur looked overat his alarm clock and wondered why he had woken up before it rang. That was until he actually rubbed his eyes and got a clearer look at the thing. 7:00am. "Fuck!" He yelled as he proceeded to jump out of bed and dress quicker than a model at a fashion show. His hair was a complete mess, yet when was it not? He grabbed his phone and bag then ran out of his door and out of the apartment complex. How more cliche was this going to get? Guy running late for work running through the city of New York so that he doesn't get fired.

Arthur didn't even bother to call for a taxi, those were useless on a crowded morning like this. He manuevered through the people and was already panting.

' _Really? I'm so out of shape_.'

Arthur took another deep breath and ran a little faster, his lungs hurting a little from the sprint. The next thing he saw was his bag flying from his hand and a few loose papers flying out from it. "Are you _kidding_ me?! Un-fucking-believable!" Arthur exclaimed and clenched his fists before raising his head to the person who carelessly ran into him like he wasn't even there. "Are you blind?! What the hell!" He shouted at the man. He didn't move though, just stood there with an apologetic look and also confusion as Arthur continued to scold him as he began to pick up his papers.

As Arthur got his things and shoved them back into his bag he gestured and gave a look to the man that sort of meant "What the hell is wrong with you?", still the man looked confused. "Hello? Anyone in there?" Arthur asked as he raised a hand in front of the mans face. "The least you could do is give an apology for being so careless." Arthur said with a scowl.

The man opened his mouth and began to speak, an odd tone to his voice as well. "I'm sorry, I didn't understand you at first! I'm so sorry I knocked your things onto the ground. You kinda of took me off guard when you started to shout or I atleast think you were shouting." He said. What was up with this guy? Arthur growled and held his jacket close to him and shoved past him. Sometimes he loved New York and sometimes he really freaking hated it. Did this guy think he owned the place? What the hell was wrong with him? All Arthur really cared about the rest of that day was that he made it to his office 5 minutes before his boss has arrived so he treated his day like a safe haven.


	2. AN

so I totally forgot to add this to the introduction and I'm too lazy to update the chapter.

so I'm working on getting another chapter up on Thank You but it may be another few weeks because writers block is a pain and I can't think of what to do in that story for the time being so I decided to start this story that I have been wanting to do for awhile now and after a bit of planning for how the story is going to go I chose to start this.

I'm going to try and make all the chapters after the real chapter 2 to be around 2k words so that this isnt a 80 chapter story. I apologize for my lack of grammer and puncuation skills in this authors note I am not going to try to hard on something that isn't really a part of the story.

anyway I really hope you guys get interested into this story because I have a lot in store for this.

love bim xoxoxo


	3. Awards

Chapter 1

Arthur Kirkland wins #1 douchebag in New York of the year award

Weekends were a blessing. Not only was Arthur able to sleep in on those days, but he was off all day from work and since he was on break from university. He woke up around 9am that morning feeling more refreshed than he had the previous week. He took awhile to get out of bed but eventually was about to drag himself out to take a shower and get breakfast. Sometimes Arthur felt like weekends gave him the luxury of having breakfast since he usually never had anytime to even shove a muffin into his mouth without being almost late to work.

He sighed as he got a cup of tea ready and turned on the tv to a music channel. He quickly made a bowl of cereal and sat on his couch letting his feet rest ontop of his coffee table and hummed along to How Soon is Now by The Smiths. He ate his cereal and nodded his head along to the beat of the song, letting his nerves calm and just relax.

Once finished with his cereal he got up and took it over to the sink still moving to the rhythm of the song and started to actually sing. He didn't sing a lot, but he had a nice voice. " _ **I am the son, and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar**_..." He sang as he washed his bowl and spoon letting the music kind of take him into a state of Nirvana.

He thoughts were suddenly ripped away at the sound of his phone ringing. He grabbed his remote and turned off the tv before jogging over to pick it up.

He saw the called ID and quickly pressed the accept button, "Hello?"

"Arthur! Oh dear I'm so sorry for having to bother you on a weekend like this, but I need you to come in for a little while, 2 hours tops." His boss, Jane, told him.

Arthur felt his temper rise a little bit, but took a deep breath in through his nose and out through his mouth. " _Don't let your anger get the best of you Arthur, it's only a few hours then you can go back to relaxing_." He thought before answering back to Jane.

"Er- It's not a problem Jane, I'll be there shortly." He said then hung up.

"So, let me get this straight." Arthur said to Jane as he figured out what they were doing. "You can hardly get straight Arthur." Jane teased at him which made him fume a bit but didn't let it take him over. He took another deep breath like he had done earlier and spoke again.

"Anyway, so you just need to zip these documents and then email them out?" He asked raising a brow at her. "Yes, but how on earth do you zip a document? they don't have zippers Arthur they are on computers not jackets." Jane commented. Arthur mentally ripped his hair out and groaned with frustration.

"Jane, first of all you can't zip the document itself, it needs to be inside of a folder. Second, it's not an actual zipper dear lord that wouldn't be physically possible and third, all you do is put everything you want to send into one folder, right click then find send to 'compressed (zip folder)'." Arthur explained over the computer as Jane moved the mouse around to do what he said in the last part. "You know, I don't appreciate that tone you use, have you ever tried brightening up a little bit? That's probably why you haven't gotten laid since last year." She said with sass in her tone.

Arthur whipped his head around at her and scoffed. "Excuse you, I don't think you need to be involved in my love life Miss 'I've had 5 husbands' He stated. Jane only laughed, her face wrinkling up more than it already was. That made Arthur smile a little and start to laugh too. He shook his head and sighed, looking down at his shoes. "You know, Jane, you're probably one of the best bosses I've ever had, even though I really hate working here." Arthur told her.

Jane only smiled and got up from her computer chair. "Nobody like working as an assistant Arthur, especially for a boring publishing company. You're a hard worker though and I appreciate the effort you put into the job, like coming here today to help me." Arthur nodded at that and checked his watch to see the time. 12:00pm. Arthur stuck his hands into his pocket and smiled softly at his boss. "I'll see you on Monday Jane, thanks for the small talk though." He said before walking out the door.

Jane wasn't bad, she really wasn't. It was the rest of the people at his job that made Arthur tip over the edge. They were snobby and just plain rude. Arthur thought his family were pricks but this reached far beyond his mother getting mad for something putting their elbows on the table while eating. He shook his head at the thought and looked up at the sky as he strolled down the busy streets, tourists and locals passing by every minute of every day. It was quite a nice day as well, barely any clouds and the sun was shin-

His thoughts were interuppted when he was almost knocked over but managed to latch onto a newpaper stand. "Oh god, sorry I didn't see you there!" The man exclaimed in a worrysome tone. Arthur shook his head and gathered his surroundings again as he looked up to see the guy. ' _Are you serious right now_?' He thought to himself.

"You? Again? Really? Do you have eyes? or do you have a problem with running into people everyday?" Arthur fumed at the man which caused his to step back and raise his hands a little in defense. "Woah, hey I said I was sorry and I didn't see you cause you kind were the shortstack in a large crowd." He said.

Short? He really knew how to make a guy mad didn't he? Arthur turned his head and crossed his arms. "I'm not short." He stated. The man raised an eyebrow and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry could you say that again? facing me please?" He asked. Now it was Arthurs turn to cock an eyebrow. Face him? What was he going to do, pepper spray him?

Arthur turned his head back to the man and groaned in annoyance. "Why do I need to face you? It's not like your the president." The Brit responded. The man only shook his head and chuckled a little. "No I'm not the president, but I'm legally deaf, it's hard to know what you're saying without seeing your mouth." He said. Legally deaf? This guy? That Arthur basically made fun of the other day?

Congradulations Arthur, you win #1 douchebag in New York of the year award.

A/N

so more Alfred and Arthur interaction. I hope this is going well so far, I tried my best to make this chapter as long as I could without rambling on too much.

This is the second story i've ever written so I do apologize if this is not the best and maybe sometimes when I get better i'll rewrite it because I love the concept of this story.

But anyway, I hope you guys are enjoying it so far, and if you have any suggestions, or comments in general please feel free to send them, critism is helpful and ill be glad to take advice from anyone.

love bim xoxoxo


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